After more than 20 years of reviewing citizen complaints of police misconduct, the City of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel (CIP) faces imminent closure.
The independent oversight board, made up of 13 volunteer panelists and an office of professional staff, was informed this week by the city’s administration that it would no longer be funded. Without funding, the CIP will cease to exist at the end of September.
“We were informed by city officials earlier this week that they would not be funding us for the next fiscal year, thus dissolving our department, the Civilian Investigative panel,” Rodney Jacobs Jr., executive director of the CIP, told WLRN.
This comes after the Florida Legislature passed a law that prohibits cities or “political subdivisions” from creating independent bodies to investigate complaints against law enforcement officers.
READ MORE: Florida bill would ban civilian police oversight statewide. Critics say that's counterproductive
In a prepared statement, City of Miami spokesperson Kenia Fallat said the state law does not allow the city to continue funding the CIP.
“As a consequence of the new law, the City of Miami is barred from allocating budget funds to a board whose main purpose and duties are contrary to Florida Statutes,” Fallat said.
Jacobs said the CIP offered the city an alternative to dissolving the panel: a new version of the CIP ordinance that strips the body of its investigative powers. Under his proposed language, the CIP would only be able to review MPD's departmental policies and recommend that the department re-open its own investigations.
"Obviously all of that was to no avail and the city has decided to take this approach and dissolve us completely," he told WLRN. Jacobs added that the CIP is enshrined in the city charter, and asserted that the state law does not address charter language, only ordinances.
According to the city, the chief of the Miami Police Department (MPD) is in the process of creating a police oversight board that complies with the new law, which will be composed of three to seven members appointed directly by the police chief. The chief's Community Advisory Panel (CAP), which provides feedback to the chief on departmental policies, will also take on some of the CIP's work.
"The CAP will be taking on many of the responsibilities that [were] held by the [CIP], ensuring that the Miami Police Department upholds the highest ethical standards and adheres to national best practices," Fallat said in a written statement.
Over the past two decades, the CIP has reviewed hundreds of cases of alleged discourtesy, unbecoming conduct and excessive force on the part of MPD officers. Though the CIP can only give recommendations to the department and cannot issue discipline, its involvement has brought many high-profile cases to light that otherwise might not have seen the light of day.
Created by voters, for the community
In 2001, 76% of voters in Miami voted in favor of creating civilian oversight of the city’s police.
After its founding in 2002, the CIP set to work reviewing closed cases from MPD’s Internal Affairs unit, complaints from civilians and even complaints from MPD officers.
“We were a place where members of the community or even members of the police department could come to us and say: ‘Hey, I was wronged either by a police officer or the department itself, can you help me?’ And we never turned anyone away,” Jacobs said.
In 2017, an MPD officer arrested comedian and TV star Hannibal Buress for alleged public intoxication in Wynwood during Art Basel — a claim not supported by body-worn camera footage. The CIP found that the officer who arrested Buress had a history of getting intoxicated while on the job, and recommended the officer be disciplined.
Buress would later launch a federal lawsuit against the Miami cop which is still ongoing. The officer was recently denied immunity in the case, according to Miami New Times.
The CIP also investigated in 2020 when an MPD officer handcuffed University of Miami Doctor Armen Henderson outside his own home for alleged illegal dumping. Henderson was in fact loading up his own van with supplies to feed and treat homeless people.
The CIP found the officer, Mario Menegazzo, violated several MPD rules when handcuffing Henderson. They also found that Menegazzo had a history of complaints from the public, including an allegation that he pushed and shoved a woman against a wall and made a comment that she “ran [her] mouth.”
Perhaps most notably, the panel in 2022 called for the termination of MPD’s most controversial cop, Javier Ortiz. Ortiz had a long history of complaints including claims of excessive force and allegations of inappropriate conduct on social media, much of which the CIP investigated and documented.
Ortiz’s employment was terminated later that year.
Impact on bodycam and off-duty programs
Beyond the headline-grabbing investigations, Jacobs — who has served on the CIP for eight years — said he is most proud of the broader issues of policing that the panel has focused on.
“I personally think our biggest wins are from the systemic things we looked into, whether it be the body-worn camera program or the off-duty program,” he said.
The panel in 2019 issued a report that found MPD officers were exceeding the maximum hours allowed to work extra-duty shifts — like working security for bars and nightclubs — and showed bias towards business owners who were paying for off-duty details.
In 2022, the CIP found that police were not following departmental rules when using body-worn cameras. Officers were not turning on their cameras when interacting with the public, or were muting their cameras when talking to people. The report also found that officers who used body-worn cameras properly had a higher rate of being exonerated when accused of misconduct.
“I like to think we save the city money. If we say an officer has shown signs of engaging in misconduct which will only give the city lawsuits and other types of settlements, we’re telling them to trade up before it metastasizes,” Jacobs asserted.
City of Miami budget deliberations begin in September, and the CIP will not be included in the administration’s budget proposal. Members of the public are invited to attend city commission meetings during the budget talks to participate in public comment.
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